Discussing Disaster Relief Costs, and Changing Tone When It’s Closer to Home

Legal service lawyers helped families and businesses file insurance, FEMA and unemployment claims after tornadoes and other disasters in MO, TN, MS and KY, so why not after Hurricane Sandy?
Column
(Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee)

DETAILS

No doubt the keen-eyed could discover lard in the rescue package. Our politicians are as expert as those of Indiana, South Carolina and Mississippi in mining a budget for riches.

The cost of disaster aid has crept up, fueled by the terror attacks of Sept. 11 and Hurricane Katrina, to the point that the Federal Reserve recently found that most cities, whatever their bitter losses, no longer suffer any long-term economic declines from natural disasters.
Continue reading the main story Continue reading the main story
Continue reading the main story

That might be seen as cause for celebration. Or not. Senator Coats has many complaints. Only $9 billion of the Senate rescue package, he says, would be spent in the next nine months. And it should not include money for the Legal Services Corporation.

THIS last is a tip-off as to the game afoot, as the Legal Services Corporation long ago achieved Hezbollah status in the Republican cosmology. I nosed around and found that after tornadoes and all manner of disasters in Missouri, Tennessee, Mississippi and Kentucky, Legal Services lawyers helped broken families and businesses file insurance, FEMA and unemployment claims.